Precious metals exchange to open in Moscow

The country has so far only been dealing with futures on gold and silver but traders will now be able to buy and sell gold, silver and eventually platinum and palladium at spot prices.

The metals will be priced in rubles and will be stored and delivered by the exchange.

Gold in Russia has only been selling over-the-counter and prices were based on quotes from the Central Bank.

“We are a gold-exporting country. We produce a large number of precious metals," said Mikhail Orlenko, director of the exchange's commodity market, as reported by RT. "However, the trade volume is still significantly lagging behind our peers. Our commodity market is not transparent."

Russia accounts for 43% of global palladium production and is the second largest producer of platinum.

Ana Komnenic is an assistant editor at MINING.com. Ana's work has been published in the Huffington Post, Business in Vancouver, The New York World, and DNAinfo.com in New York City. She has also worked at the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN) in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Ana holds an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University.
You can reach Ana at akomnenic@mining.com or find her on Twitter @anakomnenic